What your processing fee funds: A transparent look at generosity technology

Recent conversations in the church-tech space have raised important questions about processing fees, profit, and who benefits when someone gives to their church. These are fair questions that deserve honest answers.

We agree on one foundational truth: giving is sacred. Churches deserve transparency, tools that honor both donors and mission, and partners who help maximize what reaches ministry.

Where perspectives differ is in the assumption that sustainable, for-profit technology inherently conflicts with ministry values. The reality is more nuanced. Long-term investment in security, reliability, and innovation is what enables churches to grow generosity safely and at scale.

The question isn’t whether technology providers earn a profit. It’s what churches receive in return.

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What processing fees fund

Every church platform charges processing fees. Some are higher, some are lower. But the number on the invoice doesn’t tell the whole story.

What matters is what happens after someone hits “give.”

When most platforms process a donation:

The transaction processes. But there’s no system working to increase success rates or recover authorization failures.

If the card fails? The church gets notified and has to figure it out themselves.

If the card expires? Recurring gifts stop until someone manually reaches out.

If the payment gateway goes down? Those donations are lost.

What Pushpay’s processing infrastructure delivers:

Our processing fees fund systems built specifically to help churches receive more donations, not just collect them:

• 95%+ transaction success rate vs 92% industry average. That 3%+ difference means more donations reach your church. We optimize routing and approval rates so fewer donations are declined.
• $126 million in failed payments recovered annually. When cards fail or expire, automated prompts ask donors to fix the issue and offer make-up gifts. 80% say yes. For a church of 500, that’s typically $64,000 in gifts that would have been lost.
• $48 million protected by Assured^Ⓡ Payments annually. When third-party payment gateways go down, we queue donations and process them when systems recover. Other platforms lose those gifts entirely. A mid-sized church averages $8,200 saved per year from this protection alone.
• 33% ACH adoption vs 20% industry average. We add ACH options front and center on mobile. Other platforms bury it or hide it entirely, which means churches pay higher credit card fees on donations.

Processing fees reinvested into church-specific innovation make this possible.

Why we built our processing differently

Most church platforms outsource their entire payment operation to third-party providers and act as simple pass-throughs. We made a different choice.

Pushpay operates as an ISO (Independent Sales Organization) in partnership with a payment processor. That means we own and directly manage the merchant processing relationships and payment mechanics, control the financial services technology stack, and bear responsibility for the entire donation experience.

In practical terms:

• Churches call us, not a third party. When there’s a question about a donation or failed transaction, you talk to someone who understands ministry, not a generic support team asking for merchant IDs.
• We control processing optimization and routing. When approval rates drop or patterns change, we adjust systems in real-time rather than relying on a vendor’s generic settings.
• We build church-specific recovery systems. Generic payment processors don’t distinguish between a subscription box and a recurring tithe. Our failed payment recovery speaks to donors in ways that honor the giving relationship because we designed it specifically for churches.
• We can innovate without waiting for permission. Features like Assured Payments and intelligent ACH promotion exist because we control the experience layer and can build what churches need, not what a generic processor offers everyone.

Being an ISO means we absorb more processing risk and compliance responsibility than platforms that plug into another system, leaving customers exposed to greater scrutiny by the payment ecosystems. But it also means we can deliver results that matter: higher approval rates, smarter recovery, and protections built for how churches actually operate.

Help every person feel known and connected

Create space for relationships to flourish beyond Sunday morning, turning fleeting faces into a deeply connected church family.

Get a demo

Complete visibility into every transaction

We handle deposits differently than most platforms. When donations come in, we deposit the full amount into your account each day. You see exactly what donors gave. Then we invoice you monthly for the processing fees.

Most platforms deduct fees before depositing funds (net settlement). You only see what’s left after they take their cut.

Our approach (gross settlement) gives you complete visibility. You can match your bank deposits directly to what donors gave. Our invoices break down everything separately: total donations received, processing costs, and your net amount.

If a donor says they gave $100, you’ll see that full $100 in your daily deposit. Then at month-end, you’ll see the processing fee on your invoice. You can trace every dollar.

Churches deserve visibility into every dollar. Not because we have to provide it, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Innovation that drives ministry forward

Sustainable investment allows us to build features that move the entire industry forward.

Last year alone, we launched multiple innovations that increase generosity and reduce administrative work:

• AI for Giving Data helps finance teams get instant answers to questions like “Who gave last Easter but not this year?” without running manual reports or exporting spreadsheets
• AI for People Search helps ministry leaders identify who needs follow-up, who’s at risk of leaving, and who’s ready to serve through simple questions instead of complex filters
• QuickGive reduces donation time to under 6 seconds with Apple Pay
• Embedded Giving keeps donors on your website while maintaining your branding throughout the entire giving experience.
• Agent 9 brings AI to Rock RMS through our partnership with 9 Embers. Build complex data views, write SQL queries, and summarize member profiles using plain English instead of technical filters.

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The questions churches should be asking

Pushpay isn’t the only platform that can serve churches well. Different churches have different needs, and that’s okay. The right platform depends on what matters most to your ministry.

But when evaluating any platform, churches should ask:

• What’s your actual transaction success rate? Not what you aim for. What you measure.
• Are you able to recover failed payments, or just notify us when they happen? 
• What happens to donations when your gateway goes down? Do they queue and retry, or disappear forever?
• How many of our donors will use ACH on mobile? If the platform hides it, churches pay more.
• Where do your processing profits actually go? Into church-specific innovation, or into general business operations of a third-party payment processor unrelated to ministry?

Real stewardship maximizes what reaches your ministry

At Pushpay, we see ourselves as ministry partners helping remove friction between a donor’s heart and the mission they support.

Stewardship isn’t about eliminating fees. It’s about maximizing mission impact.

When processing fees fund innovation that helps churches receive more donations, reduce manual administrative work, and focus staff time on ministry instead of systems, that’s stewardship working as a catalyst.

Healthy partnership requires transparency, shared outcomes, and mutual accountability. We’re committed to all three.

The church-tech space benefits from providers who challenge each other to serve churches better. These conversations push all of us to be more transparent, more innovative, and more focused on outcomes that matter.

We welcome that challenge.

Because when technology empowers ministry leaders to spend less time managing systems and more time caring for people, the Kingdom wins.

Spend less time on tech and more time with people

Streamline your administration and eliminate digital barriers so your team can focus on what matters most—building a community where everyone is known.

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